The Rangers fall to the Mariners 7-6 in a 12-inning heartbreaker on June 28. Despite a rally led by Adolis García, Texas couldn't overcome Seattle's late heroics.
StatPro MLB Beat Reporter
It was a game that had everything: a big deficit, a roaring comeback, extra-inning drama, and ultimately, a gut-punch of a finish. The Texas Rangers battled for 12 grueling innings against the Seattle Mariners on Saturday night, only to see it all unravel on a single swing, falling 7-6 at Globe Life Field in a contest that perfectly encapsulated the frustrations of their season.
The Rangers went just 3-for-20 with runners in scoring position and stranded 13 on base.
The night started with promise as top prospect Kumar Rocker took the mound, but the Mariners quickly jumped out to a 5-1 lead by the sixth inning. Just when it looked like a blowout, the Rangers' bats woke up. A Marcus Semien RBI double and a clutch two-run single from Adolis García fueled a furious rally that brought the Globe Life Field crowd to its feet. After Sam Haggerty tied it for Seattle in the seventh, the game became a tense chess match. Both teams traded runs in the 10th before Miles Mastrobuoni, who had already saved the game for Seattle with a dazzling catch in the 11th, delivered the final blow with an RBI single in the 12th. Shawn Armstrong (2-3) was saddled with the loss, the last of eight pitchers used by Texas in the marathon affair.
Lost in the shuffle of the extra-inning heartbreak was another important step forward for Kumar Rocker. The rookie right-hander's start was a key storyline heading into the game, representing a major piece of the Rangers' future. While the final score wasn't what the team wanted, every outing for Rocker is a crucial building block. His development remains one of the most compelling reasons to watch this season, offering a silver lining and a sign of the high-end talent the organization is cultivating for its rotation, regardless of the day-to-day results.
The Rangers close the book on June with a 12-11 record, their first winning month of the 2025 season. On the surface, that's progress. But dig a little deeper, and the cracks appear. Saturday's loss highlighted the team's biggest issue: competing within the AL West. Texas is now a dismal 1-6 against the Mariners and just 8-13 overall against their division rivals. This is the hurdle they can't seem to clear. Despite a positive run differential of +17 for the season, their inability to win these crucial head-to-head matchups is why they find themselves below .500 and losing ground in the standings.
This one stings. There's no other way to put it. The Rangers showed incredible fight to come back, but their persistent failure to get the big hit with runners on base was the story of the night. Now sitting at 40-42, the path forward doesn't get any easier. They have to find a way to solve their divisional woes, starting with the rest of this series against Seattle. The fight is there, but the execution needs to follow if this team hopes to make any noise in the second half of the season.
